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 Illinoisans have paid an extra $3.5 billion for gas
taxes since Gov. J.B. Pritzker doubled the state gas tax in 2019, which averages
$277 for each state resident during his term.
The move also gave Illinois the second-highest gas taxes, up from 10th place
before Pritzker. It currently helps drive up the price per gallon to
ninth-highest in the nation.
Pritzker’s 24-tax-hike approval in 2019 not only doubled to 38 cents per gallon
the 19-cent state gas tax, it built in an automatic annual inflation hike every
July 1. His campaign is calling a six-month delay in the current hike “tax
relief,” but the delay means two hikes 2023 when the delay expires and then the
regular increase hits. The gas tax is then projected to be 45.2 cents per
gallon.
Data from the Illinois Comptroller shows in former Gov. Bruce Rauner’s last 18
months in office, residents paid an average just shy of $118 million in gas tax
per month. After Pritzker doubled the tax, that average became $200 million a
month.
So Illinoisans now average 62% higher gas taxes under Pritzker.
During Pritzker’s full term, about $3.5 billion more in gas taxes will be
collected than during Rauner’s term. That is an extra $277 tax burden per
Illinois resident, regardless of whether they drive. That means a family of four
will pay nearly $1,100 more in state gas tax alone during one term of Pritzker
versus Rauner.
Pritzker insistently touts his gas tax hike “freeze” as helping Illinoisans
suffer less when refueling their vehicles. A recent campaign video featured the
claim Pritzker “froze the gas tax.” Pritzker also tweeted a similar message,
claiming his administration was working to provide “direct tax relief” by
freezing the tax.
Wrong. Pritzker did not freeze the gas tax: he only delayed an automatic
inflationary increase on the tax. Even worse is Illinoisans will be doubly
slammed after the election with the two hikes in 2023.
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Rather than enacting meaningful relief at the pump for Illinoisans, Pritzker
used the temporary, superficial delay as a re-election tactic, coercing gas
stations statewide to install signs advertising the delay or face a $500-a-day
fine.
Pritzker may express outward sincerity in wanting to lower the tax burden of
Illinoisans, but the comptroller’s data on tax revenues during the COVID
pandemic reveal a financial onslaught even during the lockdown when residents’
situations were most dire. For example, in May 2020, the state sapped almost $25
million more in gas taxes than during November 2018, Rauner’s most profitable
tax month that year.
Worse, there is no guarantee the $878 million extra a year Pritzker asks his
state’s residents to pay in gas go towards infrastructure as promised. Voters
overwhelmingly ratified a “Lockbox Amendment” in 2016, but lawmakers found other
ways to spend tax funds while masking it under transportation and infrastructure
spending. In 2017, a federal investigation found the Illinois Department of
Transportation gave hundreds of jobs to political affiliates regardless of job
skills or actual labor demands.
More recently, a Better Government Association investigation found Pritzker’s
“Rebuild Illinois” infrastructure package of 2020 was rife with wasteful pork
projects, such as $98 million spent on dampening train brakes for a disgruntled
Mike Madigan-associated business owner and the Illinois Toll Highway Authority
handing out six-figure salaries to political allies.
Illinoisans will have paid over $3.5 billion more in gas taxes during Pritzker’s
term. That seems like an odd definition of “relief.”
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